Waracabra tiger

The waracabra tiger or warracaba tiger, also called the y'agamisheri, is a cryptid felid reported from the mountains of central-west Guyana, described as a pack-hunting jaguar with a hideous howl.

Etymology

"Waracabra" is the local name for the grey-winged trumpeter (Psophia crepitans), which has a loud cry similar to that of the waracabra tiger.

Description

The waracabra tiger is described as being similar to a regular jaguar, but varying in size and colour - one eyewitness described it as "slim and mouse-coloured"; another as "grey-coloured except for a small mark over the eyes". It is notable more for its unusual behaviour: it hunts in packs, possibly including up to one hundred individuals. According to one eyewitness, these packs consist of two large individuals, whilst the rest are smaller; another eyewitness who saw their tracks also said it appeared the pack was "composed of animals of all sizes".

The waracabra tiger also has a loud howl similar to that of the grey-winged trumpeter, is rarely seen, and is afraid of water and dogs, the barking of which it will flee from. It is not afraid of fire.

It lives in the mountains during the rainy season. During the dry season, when they are not impeded by the presence of streams, they descend to the lowlands, pressed by hunger.

There are only four recorded sightings in which the animals were actually seen.

Sightings

Undated

A few years before Charles Barrington Brown's sighting in the mid-19th Century, a pack of waracabra tigers appeared near a settlement at the mouth of the Cuyuni River, prompting the inhabitants to abandon their homes and move to the other side of the river, leaving their settlement for the tigers. Eventually tiring of this arrangement, thirty men planned to arm themselves and investigate their homes to see if the tigers had left. Only three men went through with the plan, and it took them three months to see it through.

Whilst exploring the Mazaruni River in the mid-19th Century, Charles Barrington Brown heard the calls of the waracabra tiger. His Indian guides crossed the river to escape:

"[...] my attention was attracted by our two dogs, which were tied up, barking furiously, followed by a great stir in camp. Then some voices proclaimed loudly, "The tigers are coming!" and one man called to me to come down as quickly as possible to the boats, and bring my gun. Thinking at the moment that a couple of jaguars had been heard near by, I seized my gun and made a rush down the slope to the camp, jumping down the low bank, eager to get a shot at one, when, to my surprise, I found the beach deserted. Where some twenty Indians had been camped, there was now not even a hammock left; all had suddenly and com-pletely vanished, leaving only two or three smouldering fires and their hammock poles. My men had all taken to the boat, and .had it afloat, with its bow barely grounded, in readiness to shove off. They greeted me with cries of "Quick, sir, quick; the Warracaba tigers are coming!" There was quite a flutter of relief amongst them when the boat was pushed off into mid-stream, where they all began to talk excitedly over our escape. The dogs still gave tongue, and were even more excited than the men, the hair on their backs standing erect as they sniffed the air in the direction of our camp. I eagerly inquired what were Warracaba tigers, and was hastily informed that they were small and exceedingly ferocious tigers, that they hunted in packs, and were not frightened by camp fires or anything except the barking of dogs. To water they have a special aversion, and will never cross a stream which is too wide for them to jump."

[...]

"[...] I ran a little way up the beach, along the water's edge, with some of the men, listening to hear something of our enemies, for up to that time they had been to me both inaudible and invisible. At the same time I believed that some terrible animals had nearly pounced upon us, otherwise the Indians would never have acted as they had done. As we stopped a shrill scream rent the night air, proceeding from the oppo-site side of the river, not 200 yards above our camp, and, waking up echoes through the forest, died away as suddenly as it rose. This was answered by another cry coming from the depths of the forest, the interval between them being filled by low growls and trumpeting sounds, which smote most disagreeably on the ear. Although I knew that I was perfectly safe from any attack from these animals, whatever their nature, having the river between us, yet I felt a sort of creeping sensation of horror pass through me at the first shrill cry I heard. Gradually the cries became fainter and fainter, as the band retired from our vicinity, till they utterly died away. Seeing nothing of them, and only hearing their diabolical screams, I pictured them in my mind as a withering scourge sweeping through the forest."

"Walking on to the upper end of the beach, we met one of our Indians coming back, who said that he had been the first to land and rim up the beach, when he had seen five of the tigers come out to the water's edge, and after walking a short distance along it turn into the forest again."

Brown's men believed that only the barking of the dogs had prevented the tigers from killing them all: Brown, who was closest to the animals path, would have been attacked first. The group evaded the pack by crossing to the opposite side of the river, but there some sentries claimed the tigers were returning, so they put out into the stream.

In the late 19th Century, Everard Ferdinand Im Thurn interviewed three men who claimed to have actually seen waracabra tigers:

"One of these three witnesses was my friend McTurk, a man thoroughly acquainted with the forest and its inhabitants, and incapable of telling what he did not believe. He told me that, while walking through the forest from the Essequibo to the Kaieteur Fall, his Indian companions suddenly became terrified and declared that there were warracabas in the neighbourhood. Sounds were audible which McTurk thought were those of the warracaba bird. Shortly afterward, a single 'tiger,' a slim mouse-coloured beast, was seen; but nothing else happened. The same informant told me that he has on several occasions seen the tracks of the pack, which seemed to him to be composed of animals of all sizes, firom that of a cat up to that of a full-grown jaguar. Another witness was an Indian on the Pomeroon River, who told me that the pack consists of two large and many small individuals, all grey-coloured except for a small mark over the eyes. The third witness was a Portuguese policeman, famous for many expeditions into the interior, who assured me that he had 'met up' with a 'flock' of warracaba tigers, and had been obliged to take refuge in a tree from them; but his further account was evidently much exaggerated."

Theories

Everard Ferdinand Im Thurn suggested that stories of the animals were inspired by pumas, which sometimes travel in small family groups.

Lee S. Crandall, who spent some time working in Guyana, suggested the animals seen were bush dogs, which hunt in packs and make yapping and whining vocalisations. Botanist Dr Nicholas Guppy wrote that when he was in Guyana, although some older Indians believed the waracabra tiger really existed, most of the younger people believed "the Western identification of them as bush dogs".

Karl Shuker - whilst noting that the distribution, hunting behaviour, and elusiveness of the waracabra tiger is consistent with a bush dog identification - points out that the terrible howl of the tiger "contrasts sharply with the relatively feeble whine voiced by bush dogs", and questions whether Indians could confuse bush dogs with any form of jaguar.